As the great Richard Petty told me recently, NASCAR faces the challenge of “not having a fox for the dogs to chase anymore.” His point: In the early days of the series, there were colorful characters who brought stock car racing to life - Fireball Roberts, Cale Yarborough, Buddy Baker - and later, Dale Earnhardt, Sr., Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, to name a few.

Within those ranks, intense rivalries developed. Take Gordon and Earnhardt, Sr. The former was seen more as the clean-cut upstart that battled the meaner and more established Earnhardt, known as The Intimidator. White-collar younger fans tended to gravitate toward Gordon, Earnhardt appealed more to old-school blue-collar types.

One of the sport’s last colorful characters, Kyle Busch, sadly passed away last week. The cause of the 41-year-old’s death was not a racing crash, as with Earnhardt in 2001, but reportedly pneumonia which quickly escalated to sepsis. Busch leaves behind a wife and two children, and his brother, Kurt, also a well-known racer.

Despite his many many racing accomplishments - including more than 60 Cup wins, 102 victories in what’s now known as the Xfinity series and 69 wins in the Truck series - Busch never crossed the finish line in the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s crown jewel. But he did finish second, third and fourth in the race. This year, he claimed the prestigious Pole position.

Early in his career, Busch could be a prickly character on the track and with the media. Either fans liked that or they didn’t. This reporter didn’t like Busch much early on, and when watching races it was mostly to see him lose, something he rarely did. As Clint Boyer once joked with me, “Kyle Busch is a pain in the ass on all fronts, but he’s extremely talented.”

Later in his career, Busch mellowed, and, according to some naysayers, developed a “nicer guy” image. Kyle Busch, a nice guy? He even won me over.

Busch will be sorely missed by his family, fellow competitors and fans from all all racing series across the world. During the Indianapolis 500 Sunday, Busch was honored on the 18th lap of the race, 18 being the predominant number on his stock car.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com